Greg:
What’s going on everyone, it’s Greg here from Project Unbroken. I’m going to be talking about two things my parents instilled in me that I think is most responsible for my success. Let’s go over to the whiteboard over here. Now, it says thank you mom and dad. Obviously, I’m not thanking them for my handwriting, I know my handwriting is horrible so I’m going to read it for you. Number one is earn everything and number two is stay calm and stay positive.
Now, they both taught me both of those things but I think one is responsible for the first one and one is more responsible for the second one. My mom is definitely more responsible for the first one, which is you need to earn everything, she’s very cut throat about that. By the time I was six-years-old I understood that I need to earn everything.
Just to give an example of how I know that, when I was six-years-old pretty much my first hustle that I remember and my parents telling me about, we lived in the woods and I would go around in the woods and collect rocks and then go sell them to the neighbors, pretty much go door-to-door selling rocks. Pretty much selling ice to an Eskimo, as they would say. I knew by six-years-old that if I wanted something I had to earn it, that was obviously instilled in me at a very young age.
By the time I was 10 or 11 I had lawn cutting business where I would go to the neighbor’s lawns. I had four, five, six neighbors where I was cutting their lawns. By the time I was 12 I was working under-the-table in a factory. By the time I was 13, 14, 15, somewhere around there, I started real jobs like working at Acme and health club and then other jobs I can’t remember off the top of my head. Obviously, I knew from a very early age that if I wanted something I had to work for it.
I was really into cars back then. My brother got me into that and I always wanted a specific car, it was an Acura Integra, a GSR. It had a V-tech engine and I was really into that stuff back then. My mom knew that’s what I wanted. She was like, “Boy, if that’s the car you want you better start working for it because I’m not helping you.” That’s what I did, I saved up and I actually got that car when I was 16, which I’ll go more into in just a minute here.
When I was 20 I dropped out of college and moved back home with my mom. I get home my mom’s like, “If you’re going to live under this roof you’re going to pay me rent.” I’m like, “Come on, mom, I’m your son, you’re going to make me pay rent?” She says, “Yeah, you’re going to pay rent.” Back then I was pretty mad about it, I didn’t get it, but now being older I get it and I’m like, “Thank you, mom. Thank you, that was great.” I love it now so that’s kind of how cut throat she was.
Again, my dad mostly backed her up. He was a little more lenient with it. She told me a story recently when my brother who’s two years older, when he got his first car at 16. I guess he was $2,000 short or something like that and my dad helped him with the extra $2,000 without telling my mom. Then of course he helped me with $2,000 and my sister with $2,000 because he did it for my brother. I guess my mom found out later on and she flipped. She said she was so mad about that because she wanted us to earn everything, everything. That’s just the way my mom is, very cut throat but I think it worked well for me in the end. It’s a really great thing that my mom instilled in me is you need to earn everything you do so awesome lesson my mom taught me, thank you mom.
Number two, more my dad taught me I would say, stay calm, stay positive. I can’t really tell many situations, any situation really where I’ve seen my dad overreact or in a severe emotional state. He always stays positive, he’s positive about everything, I think that’s something I’ve instilled. It’s something that’s definitely helped me with success in life, business, health, relationships, everywhere, just being a happy and successful person. It made me realize that there’s no point in staying in a negative emotional state. You just kind of focus on the positives and move forward.
Let’s give some examples here. I’m getting married soon. Obviously, there’s a lot of bills involved with the wedding and a big bill will come in and I’m like, “Ugh, man that hurts.” For maybe a half hour, hour, two hours, I’m in a bad mood, I’m grumpy and I’m walking around the house all pissed off. My fiance kind of spots it I guess and she knows it, she’s keeping her distance.
I’ll sit down, I’ll think and I’m like, “All right, so let me break this down. I just got hit with this bill, let’s start looking at the positives. Let me calm down, let me start looking at the positives. Number one, I can afford the bill so what am I complaining about, stop being a bitch. You’re lucky that you can afford this bill. Number two and most importantly, you found someone you love and you’re happy. You’re getting married and you get to marry that person. How lucky are you? What are you complaining about some money for that you don’t even have to worry about? That’s not even an issue for you. Why are you worrying about that?”
I start thinking about those positive things and I’m like, “Okay, why am I even mad? What is that … What is this negativity doing for me? Nothing. This bill really didn’t cause any problems in my life and I’m complaining over nothing. I’m happy, I’m getting married to someone I love and I’m very lucky to have her. I can afford this bill, it’s time to move forward.”
Now, there’s cases where people maybe have a bill like that and they can’t afford it. In that case, I think you need to look at the positives as well. “I know that I’m struggling with money right now, this can maybe push me to do something positive, work harder.” When I couldn’t afford bills six, seven years ago before I started my internet businesses and my other businesses, I would get hit with bills and I didn’t like what was happening. I didn’t like not being able to afford things and having to worry and live paycheck to paycheck so guess what? Instead of complaining about it I let it push me to work on businesses that made me more money.
I always try to look at the positive side of things or let it push me in a positive direction. Another example, I’m really into health so if I injure my shoulder initially I’m pissed off. Again, I’m pouting maybe for a half hour or an hour, then I calm down. I sit down, I break down the situation. All right, well let’s look at the positives here. Number one, I’m healthy, overall I’m healthy. There’s people who don’t have arms and legs and can’t walk and paraplegics. I’m walking around and I have a shoulder injury and I’m complaining, what am I complaining about?
Number two, I can work on my lower body, I can just start working on my lower body, I just won’t do my upper body for a little bit. Number three, I can work in other areas of my life. I can start building more of my business. I can start building more on my relationships. I can start focusing more on my diet. I can focus on some of these other things. Instead of staying in emotional states, negative emotional states where you’re complaining, and down, and pouting, and just kind of … You’re putting yourself in a shitty environment.
You can really take yourself out of that by focusing on the positives, putting yourself in check, and then moving in a positive direction. Definitely something my dad taught me because he’s always calm, always staying positive, always has positive vibes, that’s why I love my dad so much. Stay calm, stay positive.
Those are the two things, mom and dad, I want to thank you for, I love you both very much. Again, if I can tell you two things that you should implement in your life or teach your kids to set them up for success and happiness, make them earn everything and teach them to stay calm and stay positive and always look at the positive side of things. All right?
Hope you all enjoyed this video, make sure you subscribe, comment below, let me know what you think. Let me know what your experience is with this, and I will see you all soon.
